Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel's welcome to the NFL moment comes vs. Bill Belichick| Habib

MIAMI GARDENS — When the NFL revealed the Dolphins’ schedule for this season, the top line was in many ways the bottom line for Mike McDaniel.

How was he going to fare against Bill Belichick?

Isn’t that a question for every Dolphins coach, post-Shula? And doesn’t that question come with an exclamation point because McDaniel will face that challenge in no less than his first time out as an NFL head coach?

McDaniel did his best Monday to play it by the coaching book, saying Sunday’s opener is the Dolphins vs. the New England Patriots. When deflecting attention off the coaches didn’t work, he also tried humor.

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“I mean, can there be a bigger disparity in career win-loss total?” he asked.

Checking the record book, we see that Belichick has 321 career wins. But if McDaniel wins Sunday, he’ll cut the deficit to just 320.

Bill Belichick vs. Mike McDaniel in an Oklahoma drill? Who wouldn't pay to see that?

“Now, it would be a bigger deal, I think, if Coach Belichick and I were on the field, maybe doing like an Oklahoma drill,” McDaniel said. “But I don’t foresee that happening. I don’t think the fans would really pay for that.”

McDaniel was so, so wrong on that one, but cut the rookie slack. If it’s the worst error in judgment he makes this week, the Dolphins would take it.

Whether it’s for the betterment of the Miami Dolphins or personal pride in not getting embarrassed by what’s under the hoodie, McDaniel knows exactly what he’s up against.

“Arguably the best coach of all time,” McDaniel called Belichick, tossing in “arguably” because he knows he’s coaching the one organization in the NFL where that GOAT label remains debatable.

“He’s going to be prepared,” McDaniel said. “So you know that as a head coach, you better prepare your team and leave no stone unturned. Otherwise you’ll end up coaching with regret after the fact.”

Most Dolphins coaches lost first meeting with Belichick

Don Shula didn’t. He came out a 27-23 winner in his first matchup vs. Belichick. On that edition of “Monday Night Football” in September 1992, it was Belichick making his debut as an NFL head coach, with the Cleveland Browns. So it kinda counts, kinda doesn’t. Belichick wasn’t Belichick yet.

Dave Wannstedt in 2000 and Tony Sparano in 2008 were the only Dolphins coaches who won their first meetings against Belichick’s Patriots. As for Nick Saban, Cam Cameron, Joe Philbin, Adam Gase and Brian Flores, plus interim coaches Todd Bowles and Dan Campbell, they all came away losers, many by a wide margin.

That only puts them in a category with, oh, just about every other NFL coach. McDaniel can’t concern himself with one other subplot. Belichick’s win total puts him 27 shy of Shula’s all-time record of 347. Belichick is 70 now, but if he should keep winning at his current pace, he would surpass Shula early in the 2024 season.

McDaniel’s first assignment would be daunting enough without the added wrinkle of this being the opener in an era in which teams are laying fewer and fewer cards on the table in preseason. Nobody plays in those games anymore and everything is dumbed down, which was why Tua Tagovailoa’s lightning strike to Tyreek Hill to open the preseason finale was worthy of headlines.

“You have stuff that you’ve planned for, but what you haven’t planned for is the unplannable,” said McDaniel, who’s brainy enough to get away with inventing words.

Gase was in Year 2 when he traveled to New England and was hit upside the head with the unplannable. Belichick called for a fake punt on the first series of the game — on a fourth-and-8 from his 27-yard line. It went for 14 yards, leading to a touchdown and setting the tone for a miserable 35-17 Dolphins defeat.

Is 102 degrees too hot for you?

Always angling for an edge, Belichick is, which is why the Patriots are spending this week practicing in South Florida to get acclimated. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Monday afternoon, the heat index was a toasty 102 in Miami Gardens. Nobody bothered sorting out the “heat index” in Foxborough, possibly because it was 68 and raining.

Will the ploy work? Does anybody really get used to this heat and humidity?

“I think that’s just a component that he’s trying to help his team get prepared for that game,” McDaniel said. “But it’s not the entirety of it.”

In the end, the Patriots probably will win or lose based more on whether Mac Jones outplays Tagovailoa than if their bench is baking in the sun. It’ll matter more if McDaniel and his staff come up with a better game plan than Belichick and his staff.

But then again, a little gamesmanship never hurt anybody. So with a wink, McDaniel offered this parting shot Monday:

“You know, I feel very lucky, almost overly lucky, that I get to work on my tan all the time. Bronze up a little bit, you know, before the TV regular season starts.

“So I know for a fact that if you don’t put sunscreen on you will get bronzed.

“So factually, they better SPF up.”

Sunday's game

Patriots at Dolphins

1 p.m., CBS

Hal Habib covers the Dolphins for The Post. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Dolphins' Mike McDaniel faces New England Patriots' Bill Belichick